Thankful in Labor and Delivery

In labor and delivery, there are a lot of things to be thankful for. I remember being new to OB and feeling this overwhelming sense of family and friendship. Thanksgiving was the first holiday I had to spend at work. A week before the actual day, I walked into the lounge to see a piece of computer paper taped to the wall. Someone had scrawled “Thanksgiving Meal” on the top with the same marker we used to write the name and date of birth on our baby bands. Whoever had written the list had even carefully written out the names of everyone who was scheduled to work that day. lol What I remember the most about that day is all of us holding hands while a nurse said grace. She thanked God for all of us, and for all of our families at home, and she thanked God for our patients and their babies. I remember all of us laughing that the person who had signed up to bring the turkey had been put on-call. And I remember that same nurse walking into the lounge with the turkey in her arms that she had signed up for. She sat and ate with us, and we all laughed and ate and watched sports on one television and fetal strips on another. It was a mish-mash of different foods. We had Asian spring rolls and Mexican dips and every single kind of carb you could think of. I remember someone coming into triage complete, and another laboring mom who SROMed and gave us a prolonged decel and a prolapsed cord. Every day I’m thankful for the patients that we serve, I’m so thankful to have a job that I love, and I’m thankful for good outcomes and for lessons learned from bad ones.

This Thanksgiving, and every other, I’m so very thankful for my coworkers. Some are like mothers, some are like best friends, some are like sisters, and others are like those next-door neighbors that have obnoxious habits and keep to themselves. But whatever kind of coworker you’re surrounded by, one thing is constant: any one of them would run to a bad strip or a pulled emergency cord, any one would run towards a call for help, and any one would help you pull a stretcher to the OR. And remember this: it doesn’t matter if you work in a small community hospital or in a large university one, this Thanksgiving and every other holiday, we’re all doing the same thing…we’re all praying that no one walks through the door long enough for us to enjoy our Thanksgiving feast, the one put together by having everyone sign up for a dish on that sheet of paper in lounge 😃 And it’s like Murphy’s Law that if you plan a party, all hell is going to break loose and you will end up admitting someone, delivering a few babies, and there’s a good chance someone will have a STAT something.

So here’s to your Thanksgiving feast at work being “controlled”, more “sign-up” sheets taped to a wall in your lounge, and to the coworker who always volunteers to bring utensils or napkins 😉 May you enjoy every last carb before someone walks unexpectedly onto your unit, and more importantly, may you enjoy every single coworker you find yourself surrounded with. I’m so thankful to be a nurse, to work with such great people, and to do the best work in the world—taking care of moms and babies ❤

…and remember, we wouldn’t be able to eat our meal without that silverware! 😉